Replace your 10,000 steps a day with these 3 goals

Taking 10,000 steps daily has been debunked. Make these your targets to live by

If you’ve ever found yourself pounding the pavement in the middle of the night to make sure you get in your 10,000 steps for the day then MH has news for you: the target wasn’t set by a scientist, a PT or even an influencer, the target is thought to have come from a pedometer manufacturer in Japan.

While the scientific community has always questioned the pedometer approach to fitness, PHE has now come out and confirmed that you're better off going for a brisk 10-minute walk than counting steps obsessively.

Similar criticism in the US forced FitBit, which has sold more than 38 million fitness trackers worldwide – and encourages users to take 10,000 steps daily – to release a statement last year saying its mission was “to help people lead healthier lives by empowering them with data, inspiration and guidance”, and that users could adjust their targets.

With that in mind, we have a few other fitness goals for you to aim for, and these weren't decided in the boardroom of ‘Manpo-Kei’, which translates as ‘10,000 steps meter’, in the run up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

The lower your resting heart rate, the fitter you are

Speaking to the Telegraph, Mayfair-based personal trainer Matt Roberts said that if your resting heart rate isn't below 60 beats per minute then this may be a sign that you need to increase your physical output. Not wanting to sound too arrogant, but we’ve long advocated for tracking your heart rate to better hit your fitness goals. Check out our guide to why you should be doing it here.

Inactivity is nearly as bad for you as smoking

A lack of movement is directly linked to cardiovascular disease, and a scientific paper, published in the medical journal The Lancet, suggested that more than 5.3 million deaths would be avoided each year if all inactive people exercised, about the same toll as the 5 million deaths annually from smoking. Try not to be inactive for more than 90 minutes, so you have our permission to get up and make a shake or pop outside to get some fresh air – your body will thank you, even if your boss won't.

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